Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the Cosmogony, origin and Cosmology#Metaphysical co ...

, Acanthus (

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

: Ακανθος ''Akanthos'' means 'thorn') was the son of

Autonous In Greek mythology, Autonous (Ancient Greek: Αὐτόνοος (Auto - Nuss) means 'man with a mind of his own') was an owner of a large herd of horses which were pastured by his wife and children Family Autonous was the son of Melaneus and hu ...

(son of

Melaneus In Greek mythology, Melaneus (; Ancient Greek: Μελανεύς) was the founder of Oechalia (Oikhalia), variously located in Thessaly, Messenia or Euboea and also king of the Dryopes.Antoninus Liberalis4as cited in Nicander's ''Metamorphoses'' ...

) and

Hippodamia Hippodamia (, ; also Hippodamea and Hippodameia; Ancient Greek: Ἱπποδάμεια "she who masters horses" derived from ''hippos'' "horse" and ''damazein'' "to tame") was a Greek mythological figure. She was the queen of Pisa as the wife ...

. He was the brother of Acanthis,

Erodius In Greek mythology, Erodius ( grc, Ἐροδιός, Erodios, heron) is the son of Autonous (son of Melaneus) and Hippodamia. He was the brother of Acanthis, Acanthus, Anthus and Schoeneus.Antoninus Liberalis7as cited in Boeus' ''Ornithogonia'' ...

Anthus The pipits are a cosmopolitan genus, ''Anthus'', of small passerine birds with medium to long tails. Along with the wagtails and longclaws, the pipits make up the family Motacillidae. The genus is widespread, occurring across most of the world, e ...

and

Schoeneus In Greek mythology, Schoeneus (; Ancient Greek: Σχοινεύς ''Skhoineús'', literally "rushy") was the name of several individuals: *Schoeneus, a Boeotian king, the son of Athamas and Themisto. He may have emigrated to Arcadia, where a villag ...

. The bird he turned into has been identified as the

siskin The name siskin when referring to a bird is derived from an adaptation of the German dialect words ''sisschen'', ''zeischen'', which are diminutive forms of Middle High German (''zîsec'') and Middle Low German (''ziseke'', ''sisek'') words, which ...

, the

linnet The common linnet (''Linaria cannabina'') is a small passerine bird of the finch family, Fringillidae. It derives its common name and the scientific name, ''Linaria'', from its fondness for hemp seeds and flax seeds—flax being the English n ...

, the

blue tit The Eurasian blue tit (''Cyanistes caeruleus'') is a small passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae. It is easily recognisable by its blue and yellow plumage and small size. Eurasian blue tits, usually resident and non-migratory birds, are ...

or other birds, but with little certainty. Perhaps he is supposed to be the male of the bird his sister Acanthis turned into.

Mythology

Antoninus Liberalis Antoninus Liberalis ( el, Ἀντωνῖνος Λιβεράλις) was an Ancient Greek grammarian who probably flourished between AD 100 and 300. His only surviving work is the ''Metamorphoses'' (Μεταμορφώσεων Συναγωγή, ''Me ...

in his ''

Metamorphoses The ''Metamorphoses'' ( la, Metamorphōsēs, from grc, μεταμορφώσεις: "Transformations") is a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by the Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the wo ...

'', recounts the whole story of Acanthus and his family's unfortunate fate:

"Autonous, son of Melaneus and Hippodamia, had as sons Erodius, Anthus, Schoeneus and Acanthus, with a daughter Acanthis to whom the gods granted great beauty. Autonous acquired many herds of horses which were pastured by his wife Hippodamia and their children. Now because he neglected husbandry, no crops were produced by the extensive lands of Autonous which bore only rushes and thistles. For this reason he named his children after such plants: Acanthus, Schoeneus and Acanthis, and his oldest son Erodius, because his lands had been eroded. Erodius was extremely fond of these herds of horses which he pastured in the meadows. When Anthus, son of Autonous, drove the mares out of the meadows, keeping them out from their pastures, they were infuriated and set upon Anthus. They began to devour him as he uttered many a cry to the gods to save him. Now his father, panic-stricken through distress, faltered — as did the servant of the youth — and failed to drive off the mares. The mother went on battling with the mares, but because of weakness of body was unable to do anything to avert the slaughter. While these people were bewailing Anthus who was hardly dead, Zeus and Apollo felt pity for them and turned them all into birds. Autonous was made a quail because, though father of Anthus, he had quailed at driving off the horses. The mother was turned into a lark with a crested head because she had headed for the mares to fight for her son against them. They turned Anthus himself, as well as Erudius, Schoeneur, Acanthus and Acanthyllis into birds called by the same names as they had before they were metamorphosed. They turned the servant who had attended Anthus into a heron rōdios— the same as happened to Erodius the brother of the lad, Anthus — but not the same sort of heron. For it is distinguishably smaller than the dark variety. Now this heron does not associate with the anthus bird just as the anthus bird does not associate with horses, because Anthus had suffered so much from horses. To this day when it hears a horse neigh, this bird flies away while imitating its cries."Antoninus Liberalis
7
as cited in
Boeus Boios (Βοῖος), Latinized Boeus, was a Greek grammarian and mythographer, remembered chiefly as the author of a lost work on the transformations of mythic figures into birds, his ''Ornithogonia'', which was translated into Latin by Aemilius M ...
' ''Ornithogonia'' '

Notes

References

, ''The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis'' translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992)
Online version at the Topos Text Project.
* {{Authority control Metamorphoses into birds in Greek mythology Deeds of Zeus Deeds of Apollo